Pranav Balakrishnan · · 6 min readAsia isn’t sold on ChatGPT ads yet
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In 2024, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman called the combination of ads and AI “uniquely unsettling.” Advertising, he said, would be a “last resort” for the company, adding that paying users would subsidize free access for those who could not afford it.
Two years later, OpenAI is turning to those free users for advertising revenue. After starting a pilot in the US in February, it launched ChatGPT ads across several Asian markets in September. The ads will appear to users on its Free and Go plans.
Asia is central to this push. In August, OpenAI began rolling out ads in India, which has over 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users. But a large audience does not guarantee a lucrative advertising business.
At the moment, Asian brands are willing to test ChatGPT ads, but they’re still figuring out how people shop through a chatbot, whether those ads drive sales, and what a reasonable price should be. In particular, the cost of running ads on ChatGPT is more erratic than established channels, so brands are unwilling to commit large budgets.
Image credit: Made by Ulla/Tech in Asia with the help of AI
The company may have overestimated how quickly advertisers would commit. Asia’s largest ad spenders are unlikely to go big on ChatGPT ads anytime soon.
But it could attract, or even create, a new breed of advertisers. Our top AI read this week looks at who they might be and how ads could reshape the way hundreds of millions of people across the region use AI.
Elsewhere in this edition, we share our take on Trump’s superintelligence pact that’s not so intelligent, and we explain why Asian consumer-tech companies, including food and grocery delivery platforms, may hesitate to launch their own versions of Muse or Instinct.
Pranav Balakrishnan, AI reporter
Editor’s note: This is the Wednesday edition of The Prompt, our AI newsletter that comes out twice a week. Catch up on Monday’s edition, where we looked at the hype surrounding decision-making model Jev.
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